Girlfriend told Pattaya Police that she had not heard from her boyfriend since he arrived in Thailand and headed straight to Pattaya to begin his holiday in the kingdom. Officers are awaiting a post-mortem being conducted in Bangkok.
Police are investigating the death of a 79-year-old Canadian tourist who arrived in Thailand on July 6th after his skeletal remains were found, on Friday, on a vacant grassland site in the Bang Lamung district of Pattaya. The man had a Thai girlfriend in the northern province of Chaiyaphum and is understood to have had a history of cancer and memory lapses. The Institute of Forensics at the Police Hospital in Bangkok is carrying out a post-mortem on the remains to determine the cause of death.
The man has been named as 79-year-old Glenn Vernon who was staying at a hotel just 500 metres from the site after arriving in Thailand on July 6th last through Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Staff at the Twin Resort Pattaya Hotel in Pattaya’s Bang Lamung area, on Tuesday, July 12th, filed a missing person report with Pattaya Police after their guest was not seen for days after his arrival.
Missing person case opened after a report was submitted by the man’s hotel on Tuesday 12th of July
This prompted police to open an investigation into the man’s disappearance which included officers monitoring CCTV cameras near the hotel to obtain information on Mr Vernon’s whereabouts.
It is reported that police investigating the death of the Canadian tourist believe that he may have been dead for up to 9 days as his remains were found in a skeletal state with the body completely decomposed.
The site where the body was found comprises 10 rai of open, uncultivated grassland which helped to conceal it.
A white T-shirt and black pants were found near the remains as well as the man’s Canadian passport and three hundred Canadian dollars.
Belongings found in undisturbed hotel room
Police had checked the man’s bedroom at the hotel where he was staying as part of their investigation and found that the Canadian visitor’s belongings were there with no signs of any disturbance.
Police Captain Phuttharak Sonkhamharn, the Deputy Head of Investigation at Pattaya Police station as well as other senior officers responded on Friday when the alarm was raised by 54-year-old Da Phromthung, the assistant housekeeper of Leelawadee Hotel, just nearby, after she had gone to the open field area to collect morning glory, a flower.
Local hotel staff member found skeletal remains of Canadian in the pasture while searching for morning glory at the site, 500 metres from the man’s hotel
She had detected a foul odour of decomposing flesh which she thought might have been a stray dog.
However, when she saw the body, she could see the skeletal remains of a human being and immediately summoned police to the scene who also brought a local rescue service to retrieve the remains.
Officers working on the case are awaiting the post-mortem result to determine the exact cause of death but have spoken to Mr Vernon’s girlfriend who lives in Thailand’s central northeastern Chaiyaphum province to inform her of the death of Mr Vernon and to obtain more background information.
Suffered from cancer and memory lapses
She told police that her boyfriend had arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on July 6th and went to spend the initial part of his holiday in Pattaya. However, she had not heard from him after that.
She told police that the older man had a history of cancer and also suffered from chronic lapses of memory.
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